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About Ian W. McVitty

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14 thoughts on “Starbucks Coffee”

Innovation as usual; they produced a beautiful and original commercial spot of the reverse route of a cup of coffee, from the Starbucks store/location to the coffee bean at the producer. Product differentiation – now, we know in an original way, the story of the finest quality coffee beans from Starbucks.

To answer your question sir, i would have to say that Tim Horton’s copies Starbucks the best, they sell a variety of coffee, cappuccinos and other coffee variations. They sell premium coffee, donuts, cookies, bagels, muffins etc (all the things that Starbucks offers as well) not to mention they have free WiFi (same as Starbucks) and are a big coffee/bakery chain in Canada. The only difference between the two is that Starbucks differentiates itself by writing customers names wrong on the cup of whatever the customer is ordering and that’s what gets people to keep coming back. They write it wrong so that people with take pictures of it and talk about it all day, this is how Starbucks differentiates itself from big chains like Tim Horton’s, because if it weren’t for the fact that they market themselves in such a unique way i’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be as big as they are today.
Reanna

Personally find it awkward when they announce your full drink and name. Feel kind of defensive about my choices when the whole shop knows I ordered two extra shots of espresso or skim milk or “skinny” as they say instead of 2%. Yes, it’s been a rough morning and no, I’m not trying to get skinny and I know that it won’t balance out the heaps of sugar in the caramel macchiato. It’s just a texture preferance. This may just be me.

Emily,
Very much enjoyed reading your comment. I wonder if it is because there a limit to what you consider polite and/or private. I respect this very much.
Remember the Zone of Tolerance? It is different for everyone, but I doubt if restaurants consider this very much in their training.
Ian

I guess I’m slightly bias because I am a barista at Starbucks but I would say that Starbucks does set the bar for every other coffee shop. Not only do they personalize your experience with the cup/name calling, you can literally order your drink anyway you want and we will give it to do. McDonald’s and Tim Horton’s do have the standard coffee, latte, cappuccino and iced coffee drinks, but they are no where near the standard of variety that Starbucks offers. I agree with Reanna on Tim Horton’s being Starbucks biggest competitor because 1) they both mainly focus on coffee whereas McDonald’s focuses on food and 2) Tim’s offers more in regards to the type of coffee you can get.

In terms of Starbucks differentiating themselves with this ad, they are showing you how your perfect cup of coffee is created. They want you to feel like you’re apart of the whole process and not just the final 10 feet as we refer to it as. They also want you to know that your coffee is being made with the freshest of beans, grown fair trade and ground to perfection and not just bought from some supplier and grounded up to sit in the coffee pot for hours.

And finally, in regards to the baristas spelling people’s name wrong, its not actually a marketing tool. The main reason why we spell peoples names wrong is because half the time, we either can’t understand them or don’t hear them so we go with what we hear. Plus, we have so many other things on our minds that spelling your name the correct way is the last thing on our minds when the cup is being thrown out anyway. Yes, you will get the odd barista who will intentionally spell your name wrong to mess with you but for the majority, its not on purpose.

Emily,
Very much enjoyed reading your comment. I wonder if it is because there a limit to what you consider polite and/or private. I respect this very much.
Remember the Zone of Tolerance? It is different for everyone, but I doubt if restaurants consider this very much in their training.
Ian